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Dawn of the Wolf and Zombie Attack series 2
Dawn of the Wolf At the beginning of October 2012, Bambrough and Lacroix looked into a video contest being held by a local cave exploration organization. It was the Five Minutes of Fear film contest. The contest was to coincide with Halloween, and called for a 5 minute scary video. The winner would receive free passes to explore the caves. They decided to take the contest seriously and make a short film about a scientist who turns himself into a werewolf through a science experiment. Scripted as a horror film much more serious than the zombie films, Bambrough quickly realized their original concept was too ambitious, so decided to go ahead without Lacroix’s consent and construct an elaborate set, which depicted the events in the script having already taken place. The story was changed, now focused on the aftermath of the original scripted story and a hunter who comes across the makeshift lab and the scientist-turned-wolf. Shot over the period of one night, with some additional shots made after, Flyball Studios and CAW Studios were both pleased with the outcome. The footage was heavily edited, as to accommodate the 5 minute limit, and the film was submitted to the contest within the last half hour before the deadline. At first it appeared Dawn of the Wolf did not win, but in the end it won first place honours and was widely acclaimed, noted for being genuinely creepy and eerie without being overly gory or violent. A director’s cut was put together and is set to be released in early summer 2013. Zombie Attack series 2 Realizing the cliff hanger ending of Zombie Attack 3 was too severe and they couldn’t simply stop the story there, Flyball Studios rushed Zombie Attack 4 into production in November. It went through a short yet troubling shoot, and by the end left the studio very upset and unsatisfied. With interest lost in the series, CAW Studios and Flyball Studios announced a longer than originally intended break from Zombie Attack, with post production on Zombie Attack 4 moving sluggishly. Eventually, it was finished and released in March 2013. Not expecting much in the way of responses, they were pleasantly surprised to find Zombie Attack 4 well received and very successful, more so than the previous three. According to Bambrough, it was largely due to the multiple angles the film was shot at and the rapid cutting which gave it a quicker pace. Due to the success and their renewed interest in the series, CAW Studios and Flyball Studios went to work on the fifth episode. It had been discussed earlier on that an episode should be featured in the snow, functioning almost as a Christmas episode. The blood would also look more potent splattered on the white ground, and it would show how tough the zombie was by having it stomping around in a blizzard with shorts on. Coincidentally, when filming for Zombie Attack 5 was scheduled to begin, a freak snow storm struck the evening before. Bambrough and Lacroix went out and filmed the snow, which became the opening credit sequence. The next day, most of the snow had melted, but some still made it into a few scenes. However, this was long after Christmas had passed, and the studio couldn’t afford to wait until December. Zombie Attack 5 was released in April 2013.